Yemen rescue failed as captors alerted on U.S. commandos

The raid was the third failed rescue attempt of an American hostage in five months

Middle East

07 Aralık 2014 Pazar 00:23

World Bulletin/News Desk

It could have been something as simple as a barking dog that alerted the al Qaeda guards as U.S. special operations forces approached the compound just after midnight. Within seconds, as they neared the building, intense gunfire erupted.

Those details and others provided by U.S. and Yemeni officials about what they describe as Saturday's execution of American photojournalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie in Yemen illustrate the formidable odds the United States faces in retrieving hostages from the hands of militants across the region.

"There is nothing to indicate what or how these guys knew the team was about to enter the compound," said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and a Yemeni intelligence official said Somers, 33, and Korkie, 56, were shot by their captors shortly after the raid began in the arid Wadi Abadan district of Shabwa, a province in southern Yemen.

The operation, the second attempt to free Somers in 10 days, began with about 40 U.S. commandos late Friday in Dafaar, a small village. No Yemenis were involved in the raid, a U.S. defense official said.

The commandos arrived on tilt-rotor CV-22 Ospreys, which can fly like an airplane and land like a helicopter. Once on the ground, they approached the compound on foot. A barking dog may have given them away, but that remained unclear, an official said.

As they approached, they "lost the element of surprise," the official said.

A fierce gunfight erupted.

"The enemy started firing erratically and then our guys returned fire," one U.S. official said.

The commandos were less than 100 meters (330 ft) from the compound at that point.

They shot and killed about 10 people, including al Qaeda guards and some civilians, said Ali al-Ahmadi, Chief of Yemen National Security Bureau. The Pentagon said it was unaware of any civilian casualties.

As they fought, an al Qaeda guard darted inside the compound and then exited through the back. Gunfire was heard. That's when American officials believe Somers and Korkie were killed.

With al Qaeda guards wounded or dead, U.S. commandos moved into the compound. They found the hostages with multiple gunshot wounds and carried them to a waiting Osprey, where they were treated. One of the hostages died in the aircraft, the other died once they landed on a nearby assault ship.

The raid lasted just five to 10 minutes.

The operation was pulled together quickly.

Early on Friday, President Barack Obama authorized the mission to rescue Somers based on information from the military, law enforcement and the intelligence community. The Pentagon quickly drafted an operational plan.

"We were working against a timeline, which was al Qaeda's public threat to execute Luke Somers within 72 hours," one senior administration official said. "It was our assessment that that clock would run out on Saturday."

Late on Thursday, Pentagon officials told the White House they had drafted a plan for the mission.

It was reviewed at the White House the next morning and signed off first by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and then by Obama. U.S. officials said it had support of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

FAULTY INTELLIGENCE?

The raid was the third failed rescue attempt of an American hostage in five months and followed a Nov. 25 mission that was unsuccessful because Somers had been moved before U.S. commandos arrived.

In that raid, U.S. commandos and Yemeni troops swooped before dawn into a cave in the eastern province of Hadramout.

According to a senior Yemeni security official, seven of the eight people freed in the raid told Yemen authorities that they were members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the militant network's arm in the country, who had been held captive by the group on suspicion of being Yemen government spies. The seven were detained by AQAP "not as hostages but as suspects," the official said.

He did not elaborate and Reuters could not independently confirm his description of those being detained. American officials declined to address the question. Officials at the White House and Pentagon declined to respond to requests by Reuters for comment.

The seven - five Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian - are now being held by Yemen's government, the official said. It is unclear if the United States was aware that al Qaeda members suspected of being government informants were among the people rescued in that raid.

An eighth Yemeni, a computer specialist, was also freed.

The raid, along with Saturday's mission and a failed attempt to rescue American journalist James Foley in July, have raised questions over the quality of intelligence used by Washington in attempts to free American hostages.

The Nov. 25 raid in a mountainous region near the Saudi Arabian border lasted just three minutes, the senior Yemeni security official said.

It is uncertain if al Qaeda learned of plans for the November raid in advance and exactly when Somers, who was kidnapped in Yemen's capital Sanaa in September 2013, was moved from the cave in Hadramout.

Those who were freed said Somers and four others were moved 11 hours before the U.S. commandos arrived, the Yemeni security official said. But a senior U.S. official told Reuters that Somers and the others were taken out of the cave either on Nov. 20 or 21, before the Pentagon had even approved the operation.

At the time, U.S. officials thought he was still in the cave, the American official said.